Leader of the Whites in the Civil War. The history of Russia from Rurik to Putin! To love your Motherland means to know it

In the civil war, a variety of forces opposed the Bolsheviks. These were Cossacks, nationalists, democrats, monarchists. All of them, despite their differences, served the White cause. Having been defeated, the leaders of the anti-Soviet forces either died or were able to emigrate.

Alexander Kolchak

Although the resistance to the Bolsheviks never became fully united, it was Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (1874-1920) that is considered by many historians to be the main figure of the White movement. He was a professional military man and served in the navy. In peacetime, Kolchak became famous as a polar explorer and oceanographer.

Like other career military men, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak gained a wealth of experience during the Japanese campaign and the First World War. With the coming to power of the Provisional Government, he emigrated to the United States for a short time. When news of the Bolshevik coup came from his homeland, Kolchak returned to Russia.

The admiral arrived in Siberian Omsk, where the Socialist Revolutionary government made him minister of war. In 1918, officers carried out a coup, and Kolchak was named Supreme Ruler of Russia. Other leaders of the White movement at that time did not have as large forces as Alexander Vasilyevich (he had an army of 150,000 at his disposal).

In the territory under his control, Kolchak restored the legislation of the Russian Empire. Moving from Siberia to the west, the army of the Supreme Ruler of Russia advanced to the Volga region. At the peak of their success, White was already approaching Kazan. Kolchak tried to attract as many Bolshevik forces as possible in order to clear Denikin’s road to Moscow.

In the second half of 1919, the Red Army launched a massive offensive. The Whites retreated further and further into Siberia. Foreign allies (Czechoslovak Corps) handed over Kolchak, who was traveling east on the train, to the Socialist Revolutionaries. The admiral was shot in Irkutsk in February 1920.

Anton Denikin

If in the east of Russia Kolchak was at the head of the White Army, then in the south the key military leader for a long time was Anton Ivanovich Denikin (1872-1947). Born in Poland, he went to study in the capital and became a staff officer.

Then Denikin served on the border with Austria. He spent the First World War in Brusilov's army, took part in the famous breakthrough and operation in Galicia. The Provisional Government briefly made Anton Ivanovich commander of the Southwestern Front. Denikin supported Kornilov's rebellion. After the failure of the coup, the lieutenant general was in prison for some time (Bykhovsky prison).

Having been released in November 1917, Denikin began to support the White Cause. Together with generals Kornilov and Alekseev, he created (and then single-handedly led) the Volunteer Army, which became the backbone of the resistance to the Bolsheviks in southern Russia. It was Denikin that the Entente countries relied on when they declared war on Soviet power after its separate peace with Germany.

For some time Denikin was in conflict with the Don Ataman Pyotr Krasnov. Under pressure from the allies, he submitted to Anton Ivanovich. In January 1919, Denikin became the commander-in-chief of the VSYUR - the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. His army cleared the Bolsheviks from Kuban, the Don Territory, Tsaritsyn, Donbass, and Kharkov. The Denikin offensive stalled in Central Russia.

The AFSR retreated to Novocherkassk. From there, Denikin moved to Crimea, where in April 1920, under pressure from opponents, he transferred his powers to Peter Wrangel. Then came the departure to Europe. While in exile, the general wrote his memoirs, “Essays on the Russian Time of Troubles,” in which he tried to answer the question of why the White movement was defeated. Anton Ivanovich blamed the Bolsheviks exclusively for the civil war. He refused to support Hitler and criticized collaborators. After the defeat of the Third Reich, Denikin changed his place of residence and moved to the USA, where he died in 1947.

Lavr Kornilov

The organizer of the unsuccessful coup, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov (1870-1918), was born into the family of a Cossack officer, which predetermined his military career. He served as a scout in Persia, Afghanistan and India. During the war, having been captured by the Austrians, the officer fled to his homeland.

At first, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov supported the Provisional Government. He considered the leftists to be the main enemies of Russia. Being a supporter of strong power, he began to prepare an anti-government protest. His campaign against Petrograd failed. Kornilov, along with his supporters, was arrested.

With the onset of the October Revolution, the general was released. He became the first commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army in southern Russia. In February 1918, Kornilov organized the First Kuban to Ekaterinodar. This operation became legendary. All leaders of the White movement in the future tried to be equal to the pioneers. Kornilov died tragically during an artillery shelling of Yekaterinodar.

Nikolai Yudenich

General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich (1862-1933) was one of Russia's most successful military leaders in the war against Germany and its allies. He led the headquarters of the Caucasian Army during its battles with the Ottoman Empire. Having come to power, Kerensky dismissed the military leader.

With the onset of the October Revolution, Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich lived illegally in Petrograd for some time. At the beginning of 1919, using forged documents, he moved to Finland. The Russian Committee, which met in Helsinki, proclaimed him commander-in-chief.

Yudenich established contact with Alexander Kolchak. Having coordinated his actions with the admiral, Nikolai Nikolaevich unsuccessfully tried to enlist the support of the Entente and Mannerheim. In the summer of 1919, he received the portfolio of Minister of War in the so-called North-Western government, formed in Revel.

In the fall, Yudenich organized a campaign against Petrograd. Basically, the White movement in the civil war operated on the outskirts of the country. Yudenich's army, on the contrary, tried to liberate the capital (as a result, the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow). She occupied Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina and reached the Pulkovo Heights. Trotsky was able to transport reinforcements to Petrograd by rail, thereby nullifying all attempts by the Whites to gain the city.

By the end of 1919, Yudenich retreated to Estonia. A few months later he emigrated. The general spent some time in London, where Winston Churchill visited him. Having come to terms with defeat, Yudenich settled in France and retired from politics. He died in Cannes from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Alexey Kaledin

When the October Revolution broke out, Alexei Maksimovich Kaledin (1861-1918) was the chieftain of the Don Army. He was elected to this post several months before the events in Petrograd. In the Cossack cities, primarily in Rostov, sympathy for the socialists was strong. Ataman, on the contrary, considered the Bolshevik coup to be criminal. Having received alarming news from Petrograd, he defeated the Soviets in the Donskoy Region.

Alexey Maksimovich Kaledin acted from Novocherkassk. In November, another white general, Mikhail Alekseev, arrived there. Meanwhile, the Cossacks for the most part hesitated. Many war-weary front-line soldiers eagerly responded to the slogans of the Bolsheviks. Others were neutral towards Lenin's government. Almost no one disliked the socialists.

Having lost hope of restoring contact with the overthrown Provisional Government, Kaledin took decisive steps. He declared independence. In response to this, the Rostov Bolsheviks rebelled. Ataman, enlisting the support of Alekseev, suppressed this uprising. The first blood was shed on the Don.

At the end of 1917, Kaledin gave the green light to the creation of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army. Two parallel forces appeared in Rostov. On the one hand, it was the Volunteer generals, on the other, the local Cossacks. The latter increasingly sympathized with the Bolsheviks. In December, the Red Army occupied Donbass and Taganrog. Meanwhile, the Cossack units had completely disintegrated. Realizing that his own subordinates did not want to fight Soviet power, the ataman committed suicide.

Ataman Krasnov

After Kaledin's death, the Cossacks did not sympathize with the Bolsheviks for long. When the Don was established, yesterday’s front-line soldiers quickly began to hate the Reds. Already in May 1918, an uprising broke out on the Don.

Pyotr Krasnov (1869-1947) became the new ataman of the Don Cossacks. During the war with Germany and Austria, he, like many other white generals, participated in the glorious The military always treated the Bolsheviks with disgust. It was he who, on the orders of Kerensky, tried to recapture Petrograd from Lenin’s supporters when the October Revolution had just taken place. Krasnov's small detachment occupied Tsarskoye Selo and Gatchina, but the Bolsheviks soon surrounded and disarmed him.

After the first failure, Pyotr Krasnov was able to move to the Don. Having become the ataman of the anti-Soviet Cossacks, he refused to obey Denikin and tried to pursue an independent policy. In particular, Krasnov established friendly relations with the Germans.

Only when capitulation was announced in Berlin did the isolated chieftain submit to Denikin. The commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army did not tolerate his dubious ally for long. In February 1919, Krasnov, under pressure from Denikin, left for Yudenich’s army in Estonia. From there he emigrated to Europe.

Like many leaders of the White movement who found themselves in exile, the former Cossack chieftain dreamed of revenge. Hatred of the Bolsheviks pushed him to support Hitler. The Germans made Krasnov the head of the Cossacks in the occupied Russian territories. After the defeat of the Third Reich, the British handed Pyotr Nikolaevich over to the USSR. In the Soviet Union he was tried and sentenced to capital punishment. Krasnov was executed.

Ivan Romanovsky

Military leader Ivan Pavlovich Romanovsky (1877-1920) during the tsarist era was a participant in the war with Japan and Germany. In 1917, he supported Kornilov’s speech and, together with Denikin, served an arrest in the city of Bykhov. Having moved to the Don, Romanovsky participated in the formation of the first organized anti-Bolshevik detachments.

The general was appointed Denikin's deputy and headed his headquarters. It is believed that Romanovsky had a great influence on his boss. In his will, Denikin even named Ivan Pavlovich as his successor in the event of an unexpected death.

Due to his directness, Romanovsky conflicted with many other military leaders in the Dobrarmiya, and then in the All-Soviet Union of Socialists. The white movement in Russia had an ambivalent attitude towards him. When Denikin was replaced by Wrangel, Romanovsky left all his posts and left for Istanbul. In the same city he was killed by lieutenant Mstislav Kharuzin. The shooter, who also served in the White Army, explained his action by blaming Romanovsky for the defeat of the AFSR in the civil war.

Sergey Markov

In the Volunteer Army, Sergei Leonidovich Markov (1878-1918) became a cult hero. The regiment and colored military units were named after him. Markov became famous for his tactical talent and his own courage, which he demonstrated in every battle with the Red Army. Participants in the White movement treated the memory of this general with special reverence.

Markov's military biography in the tsarist era was typical for an officer of that time. He took part in the Japanese campaign. On the German front he commanded a rifle regiment, then became the chief of staff at several fronts. In the summer of 1917, Markov supported the Kornilov rebellion and, together with other future white generals, was under arrest in Bykhov.

At the beginning of the civil war, the military man moved to the south of Russia. He was one of the founders of the Volunteer Army. Markov made a great contribution to the White Cause in the First Kuban Campaign. On the night of April 16, 1918, he and a small detachment of volunteers captured Medvedovka, an important railway station, where volunteers destroyed a Soviet armored train, and then broke out of encirclement and escaped pursuit. The result of the battle was the salvation of Denikin’s army, which had just completed an unsuccessful assault on Ekaterinodar and was on the verge of defeat.

Markov's feat made him a hero for the whites and a sworn enemy for the reds. Two months later, the talented general took part in the Second Kuban Campaign. Near the town of Shablievka, his units encountered superior enemy forces. At a fateful moment for himself, Markov found himself in an open place where he had set up an observation post. Fire was opened on the position from a Red Army armored train. A grenade exploded near Sergei Leonidovich, fatally wounding him. A few hours later, on June 26, 1918, the soldier died.

Peter Wrangel

(1878-1928), also known as the Black Baron, came from a noble family and had roots associated with the Baltic Germans. Before becoming a military man, he received an engineering education. The craving for military service, however, prevailed, and Peter went to study to become a cavalryman.

Wrangel's debut campaign was the war with Japan. During the First World War he served in the Horse Guards. He distinguished himself by several exploits, for example by capturing a German battery. Once on the Southwestern Front, the officer took part in the famous Brusilov breakthrough.

During the days of the February Revolution, Pyotr Nikolaevich called for troops to be sent to Petrograd. For this, the Provisional Government removed him from service. The black baron moved to a dacha in Crimea, where he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. The nobleman managed to escape only thanks to the pleas of his own wife.

As an aristocrat and supporter of the monarchy, for Wrangel the White Idea was the only position during the Civil War. He joined Denikin. The military leader served in the Caucasian Army and led the capture of Tsaritsyn. After the defeats of the White Army during the march to Moscow, Wrangel began to criticize his superior Denikin. The conflict led to the general's temporary departure to Istanbul.

Soon Pyotr Nikolaevich returned to Russia. In the spring of 1920, he was elected commander-in-chief of the Russian army. Crimea became its key base. The peninsula turned out to be the last white bastion of the civil war. Wrangel's army repulsed several Bolshevik attacks, but was ultimately defeated.

In exile, the Black Baron lived in Belgrade. He created and headed the EMRO - the Russian All-Military Union, then transferring these powers to one of the grand dukes, Nikolai Nikolaevich. Shortly before his death, while working as an engineer, Peter Wrangel moved to Brussels. There he died suddenly of tuberculosis in 1928.

Andrey Shkuro

Andrei Grigorievich Shkuro (1887-1947) was a born Kuban Cossack. In his youth he went on a gold-mining expedition to Siberia. During the war with the Kaiser’s Germany, Shkuro created a partisan detachment, nicknamed the “Wolf Hundred” for its daring.

In October 1917, the Cossack was elected as a deputy to the Kuban Regional Rada. Being a monarchist by conviction, he reacted negatively to the news about the Bolsheviks coming to power. Shkuro began to fight the Red commissars when many of the leaders of the White movement had not yet had time to loudly declare themselves. In July 1918, Andrei Grigorievich and his detachment expelled the Bolsheviks from Stavropol.

In the fall, the Cossack became the head of the 1st Officer Kislovodsk Regiment, then the Caucasian Cavalry Division. Shkuro's boss was Anton Ivanovich Denikin. In Ukraine, the military defeated the detachment of Nestor Makhno. Then he took part in the campaign against Moscow. Shkuro went through battles for Kharkov and Voronezh. In this city his campaign fizzled out.

Retreating from Budyonny's army, the lieutenant general reached Novorossiysk. From there he sailed to Crimea. Shkuro did not take root in Wrangel's army due to a conflict with the Black Baron. As a result, the white military leader ended up in exile even before the complete victory of the Red Army.

Shkuro lived in Paris and Yugoslavia. When World War II began, he, like Krasnov, supported the Nazis in their fight against the Bolsheviks. Shkuro was an SS Gruppenführer and in this capacity fought with the Yugoslav partisans. After the defeat of the Third Reich, he tried to break into the territory occupied by the British. In Linz, Austria, the British extradited Shkuro along with many other officers. The white military leader was tried together with Pyotr Krasnov and sentenced to death.

Who dedicated his entire life to the army and Russia. He did not accept the October Revolution and until the end of his days he fought the Bolsheviks with all the means that the honor of an officer could allow him.
Kaledin was born in 1861 in the village of Ust-Khoperskaya, in the family of a Cossack colonel, a participant in the heroic defense of Sevastopol. From childhood he was taught to love his Fatherland and defend it. Therefore, the future general received his education, first at the Voronezh Military Gymnasium, and later at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School.
He began his military service in the Far East in the horse artillery battery of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. The young officer was distinguished by his seriousness and concentration. He constantly strived to master military science to perfection and entered the Academy at the General Staff.
Kaledin's further service takes place as staff officers in the Warsaw Military District, and then in his native Don. Since 1910, he has held only command positions and gained considerable experience in leading combat formations.

Semenov Grigory Mikhailovich (09/13/1890 - 08/30/1946) - the most prominent representative in the Far East.

Born into a Cossack officer family in Transbaikalia. In 1911 With the rank of cornet, he graduated from the Cossack military school in Orenburg, after which he was assigned to serve on the border with Mongolia.

He had an excellent command of local languages: Buryat, Mongolian, Kalmyk, thanks to which he quickly became friends with prominent Mongolian figures.

During the separation of Mongolia from China, in December 1911. took the Chinese resident under guard, delivering him to the Russian consulate located in Urga.

In order not to cause unrest between the Chinese and the Mongols, with a platoon of Cossacks, he personally neutralized the Chinese garrison of Urga.

Alexander Sergeevich Lukomsky was born on July 10, 1868 in the Poltava region. In Poltava he graduated from the Cadet Corps named after, and by 1897 he completed his studies with honors at the Nikolaev Engineering School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff in. Alexander Sergeevich’s military career began with the 11th Engineer Regiment, from where a year later he was transferred as an adjutant to the headquarters of the 12th Infantry Division, and from 1902 his service took place in the Kiev Military District, where he was appointed to the headquarters as a senior adjutant. For the excellent performance of his official duties, Lukomsky was awarded the rank of colonel, and in 1907 he took the post of chief of staff in the 42nd Infantry Division. Since January 1909, Alexander Sergeevich dealt with mobilization issues in case of war. He participated in all changes to the Charter related to mobilization, personally supervised draft laws on personnel recruitment, being in the position of head of the mobilization department of the Main Directorate of the General Staff.
In 1913, Lukomsky was appointed assistant to the head of the chancellery of the War Ministry and, already serving in the ministry, received the next military rank of major general, and as a reward to his existing one - the ribbon of the Holy Great Martyr and St. George the Victorious.

Markov Sergei Leonidovich was born on July 7, 1878 in the family of an officer. Having graduated with honors from the 1st Moscow Cadet Corps and the Artillery School in St. Petersburg, he was sent to serve in the 2nd Artillery Brigade with the rank of second lieutenant. Then he graduated from the Nikolaev Military Academy and went to military service, where he showed himself to be an excellent officer and was awarded: Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow. Sergei Leonidovich's further career continued in the 1st Siberian Corps, where he served as a headquarters adjutant, and then at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District, and eventually, in 1908, Markov ended up serving in the General Staff. It was during his service in the General Staff that Sergei Leonidovich created a happy family with Putyatina Marianna.
Sergey Leonidovich Markov was engaged in teaching at various St. Petersburg schools. He knew military affairs very well and tried to convey all his knowledge of strategy and maneuvering to the students in full and at the same time sought the use of non-standard thinking during combat operations.
At the beginning, Sergei Leonidovich was appointed chief of staff of the “iron” rifle brigade, which was sent to the most difficult areas of the front and very often Markov had to put his unconventional strategic moves into practice.

Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg is perhaps the most extraordinary personality in everything. He belonged to an ancient warlike family of knights, mystics and pirates, dating back to the times of the Crusades. However, family legends say that the roots of this family go back much further, to the times of the Nibegungs and Attila.
His parents often traveled around Europe; something constantly attracted them to their historical homeland. During one of these trips, in 1885, in the city of Graz, Austria, the future irreconcilable fighter against the revolution was born. The boy's contradictory character did not allow him to become a good high school student. For countless offenses, he was expelled from the gymnasium. The mother, desperate to get normal behavior from her son, sends him to the Naval Cadet Corps in. He was only one year away from graduating when he began. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg quits training and joins an infantry regiment as a private. However, he did not get into the active army and was forced to return to St. Petersburg and enter the elite Pavlovsk Infantry School. Upon completion, von Ungern-Sternber is enrolled in the Cossack class and begins service as an officer of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. He again finds himself in the Far East. There are legends about this period in the life of the desperate baron. His persistence, cruelty and flair surrounded his name with a mystical aura. A dashing rider, a desperate duelist, he had no loyal comrades.

The leaders of the White movement had a tragic fate. People who suddenly lost their homeland, to which they swore allegiance, and their ideals, could not come to terms with this for the rest of their lives.
Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs, outstanding, lieutenant general, was born on April 5, 1874 in a family of hereditary officers. The knightly family of Dieterichs from Czech Moravia settled in Russia in 1735. Thanks to his origin, the future general received an excellent education in the Corps of Pages, which he then continued at the Academy of the General Staff. With the rank of captain, he participated in the Russian-Japanese War, where he distinguished himself as a brave officer. For heroism shown in battles he was awarded III and II degrees, IV degrees. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Further service took place at army headquarters in Odessa and Kyiv.
The First World War found Dieterichs in the position of chief of staff in the mobilization department, but he was soon appointed quartermaster general. It was he who led the development of all military operations of the Southwestern Front. For successful developments that brought victories to the Russian army, Mikhail Konstantinovich was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav with swords, 1st degree.
Diterikhs continues to serve in the Russian Expeditionary Force in the Balkans and participated in the battles for the liberation of Serbia.

Romanovsky Ivan Pavlovich was born into the family of a graduate of the artillery academy on April 16, 1877 in the Lugansk region. He began his military career at the age of ten, entering the cadet corps. He graduated with brilliant results in 1894. Following in his father's footsteps, he began studying at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, but finished his studies at the Konstantinovsky School for religious reasons. And after graduating with honors from the next level of education - the Nikolaev General Staff Academy, Ivan Pavlovich was appointed company commander of the Finnish Regiment.
In 1903, he started a family, marrying Elena Bakeeva, the daughter of a landowner, who later bore him three children. Ivan Pavlovich was a devoted family man, a caring father, always helping friends and relatives. But she broke the idyll of family life. Romanovsky left to fulfill his duty as a Russian officer in the East Siberian artillery brigade.

Outstanding, active participant in the White movement, born in 1881 in Kyiv. Being the son of a general, Mikhail never thought about choosing a profession. Fate made this choice for him. He graduated from the Vladimir Cadet Corps, and then from the Pavlovsk Military School. Having received the rank of second lieutenant, he began serving in the Life Guards Volyn Regiment. After three years of service, Drozdovsky decided to enter the Nikolaev Military Academy. Sitting at a desk turned out to be beyond his strength, it began, and he went to the front. A brave officer in the unsuccessful Manchurian campaign was wounded. For his courage he was awarded several orders. He graduated from the Academy after the war.
After the academy, Drozdovsky served first at the headquarters of the Zaamur Military District, and then at the Warsaw Military District. Mikhail Gordeevich constantly showed interest in everything new that appeared in the army, studied everything new in military affairs. He even completed courses for pilot observers at the Sevastopol Aviation School.
and enters the cadet school, after which, having received the rank of second lieutenant, he begins service in the 85th Vyborg Infantry Regiment.
It begins, while participating in battles, the young officer proved himself so well that he was awarded a rare honor: with the rank of lieutenant, he was transferred to the Preobrazhensky Life Guards, serving in which was very honorable.
When it started, Kutepov was already a staff captain. He takes part in many battles and shows himself to be a brave and decisive officer. He was wounded three times and awarded several orders. Alexander Pavlovich was especially proud of the 4th degree.
The year 1917 begins - the most tragic year in the life of the thirty-five-year-old officer. Despite his young age, Kutepov is already a colonel and commander of the second battalion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.
Petersburg, where he graduated from high school. After graduating from the Nikolaev Engineering School, with the rank of second lieutenant, he begins his military career in the 18th engineer battalion. Every two years, Marushevsky receives another military rank for excellent service. During these same years, he graduated from the Nikolaev Academy under the General Staff.
By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, he was already a captain and chief officer for especially important assignments. He served at the headquarters of the IV Siberian Army Corps. During the fighting, Marushevsky was quickly promoted in service for his courage.

The White movement in Russia is an organized military-political movement that was formed during the Civil War in 1917-1922. Goals of the white movement in the civil war.

The White movement united political regimes that were distinguished by common socio-political and economic programs, as well as recognition of the principle of individual power (military dictatorship) on a national and regional scale.

The White movement arose in the context of opposition to the policies of the Provisional Government and the Soviets (the Soviet “vertical”) in the summer of 1917.

In preparation for the speech of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Infantry General L.G. Kornilov, both military (“Union of Army and Navy Officers”, “Union of Military Duty”, “Union of Cossack Troops”) and political (“Republican Center”, “Bureau of Legislative Chambers”, “Society for the Economic Revival of Russia”) structures took part.

Even in the Soviet Union, a myth arose that the White movement was monarchical: “The White army, the black baron are again preparing the royal throne for us.” In post-Soviet times, this myth was significantly supplemented by the fact that whites began to be considered bearers of Russian state patriotism.

They say that the whites saved Russia, and the “bloody reds” destroyed it. Although in reality the whites were ordinary mercenaries of Russian pro-Western capital and global capital. The Russian pro-Western, liberal-bourgeois elite of society (Februaryists), having overthrown the tsar and destroyed the autocracy, dreamed of making “sweet Europe” out of Russia, turning it into a peripheral part of European civilization.

However, it didn’t work out. Westerners did not know Russia and the Russian people at all. The Russian Troubles began, aggravated by the destructive, stupid actions of the pro-Western Provisional Government.

The February Westernizers were quickly left with nothing and lost power, which was taken by the Bolsheviks in the center, and by nationalists and Cossacks on the outskirts. But they did not want to resign themselves and live quietly in Paris or Venice. In addition, there was an external order: the masters of the West wanted to destroy Russian civilization and the Russian superethnos, their main conceptual and geopolitical enemy, once and for all.

Therefore, the hasty creation of nationalist and white governments and armies began, which transferred the already ongoing Civil War (the peasant war began immediately after February, as well as the criminal revolution) to a new, more serious level. As a result, the whites acted as mercenaries of the masters of the West.

The mythical picture about the lieutenants and cornets who stood up to defend the Motherland, “for the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland” and, in a moment free from fighting, sang “God Save the Tsar!” with tears in their eyes, is completely false.

It is not for nothing that one of the most prominent and talented white generals, Lieutenant General Ya. A. Slashchov-Krymsky, leaving the White Army and going over to the Red side, wrote an article: “Slogans of Russian patriotism in the service of France.”

This is the whole essence of the White movement - service to the masters of the West under the guise of the slogan of saving “one and indivisible Russia.” Hence the complete moral decay of the white elite, which understood or at the subconscious level felt its treacherous role towards the people.

The White movement, having accepted material and military assistance from the West and Japan in the form of direct intervention (invasion) of Western and Eastern occupiers, quickly lost even the external forms of the patriotic movement.

Thus, the anti-Soviet counter-revolution appeared as a pro-Western force leading to the loss of the integrity and independence of Russia, the complete destruction of Russian civilization and superethnos. Even the great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev, when starting to create “Russian studies,” set a minimum condition for this idea: “to survive and continue the independent growth” of Russia. This is precisely the minimal, unchangeable and fundamental task of Russian statehood.

It is clear that the Russian people instantly saw through the vile essence of the White movement. This predetermined the loss of broad popular support and the defeat of the White Army. Even the majority of the officers of the former imperial army, who received a largely pro-Western liberal upbringing and education, but remained Russian at heart, realized this and supported the Reds, since they really advocated the restoration of Russian statehood and a great Russia.

Half of the generals and officers of the General Staff, the flower of the imperial army, began to serve in the Red Army. Tsarist generals and officers went to serve in the Red Army almost exclusively not for ideological, but for patriotic reasons.

The Bolsheviks had a project and program for the development of Russia as an independent power, and not a periphery of European (Western) civilization. General M.D. Bonch-Bruevich later wrote: “More by instinct than by reason, I was drawn to the Bolsheviks, seeing in them the only force capable of saving Russia from collapse and complete destruction.”

General A.A. perfectly showed the essence of the views of Russian generals and officers who joined the Red Army. Brusilov. The appeal “To all former officers, wherever they are,” which was addressed by a large group of former generals of the Russian army led by Brusilov on May 30, 1920, when a threatening situation arose on the Polish front, said:

“At this critical historical moment in our people’s life, we, your old comrades in arms, appeal to your feelings of love and devotion to your homeland and appeal to you with an urgent request to forget all insults, no matter who and wherever inflicted them, and voluntarily go with full selflessness and willingness to join the Red Army and serve there not out of fear, but out of conscience, so that with our honest service, not sparing our lives, we can defend our dear Russia at all costs and prevent it from being plundered, because in the latter case it could be lost irretrievably , and then our descendants will rightly curse us and correctly blame us for the fact that, due to selfish feelings of class struggle, we did not use our military knowledge and experience, forgot our native Russian people and ruined our mother Russia.”

Even the anti-Soviet historian M. Nazarov in his book “The Mission of Russian Emigration” noted: “The orientation of the White movement towards the Entente made many fear that if the Whites win, the foreign forces behind them will subordinate Russia to their interests.” The Red Army was increasingly perceived as a force restoring statehood and sovereignty of Russia.

It is obvious that the anti-Russian and anti-state essence of the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal (in the future white) project had matured and appeared even before the start of the Troubles. The alliance with the West during the Civil War only finally revealed this essence. It was the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal forces (Februaryists) who crushed the Russian autocracy in February, which led to the collapse of the project and the Romanov empire.

Westerners dreamed of leading Russia along the Western path of development; for them, England and France were the ideal of a state, socio-economic structure. The elite of Russia - the rotten aristocracy along with the great princes, the nobility, the generals with part of the high officers, industrialists and bankers, the bourgeoisie and capitalists, the leaders of most political parties and movements, the liberal intelligentsia - dreamed of being part of the “enlightened West”.

Westerners were for the “market” and “democracy”, the full power of the “masters of money”, the owners. But their interests did not correspond to the national interests of Russia, the code-matrix of Russian civilization and people. This fundamental fault caused the Russian Troubles. In Russia, unrest begins when people's (national) interests are violated in the most vile way, which is what happened in 1917.

The essence of the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal (white) project, its anti-Russianism and anti-stateness are perfectly reflected in “Vekhi” and “From the Depths”, and by the writer V.V. Rozanov, and eyewitnesses of the “cursed days” - I. Bunin and M. Prishvin .

So, in Bunin’s “Cursed Days” on every page we see one passion - the expectation of the arrival of the Germans with their Ordnung and gallows. And if not the Germans, then at least any foreigners - as long as they quickly occupied Russia, drove the “cattle” who had raised their heads back into the mines and into corvée. “The newspapers talk about the beginning of the German offensive.

Everyone says: “Oh, if only!”... Yesterday we were at B. Quite a lot of people gathered - and all with one voice: the Germans, thank God, are advancing, took Smolensk and Bologoe... Rumors about some Polish legions, which also supposedly they are coming to save us... It’s as if the Germans are not going, as they usually do in war, fighting, conquering, but “simply going by rail” - to occupy St. Petersburg...

After yesterday evening's news that St. Petersburg had already been taken by the Germans, the newspapers were very disappointed... It was as if a German corps had entered St. Petersburg. Tomorrow there will be a decree on the denationalization of banks... I saw V.V. Heatedly reviled the allies: they are entering into negotiations with the Bolsheviks instead of going to occupy Russia..."

And further: “Rumors and rumors. St. Petersburg was taken by the Finns... Hindenburg is marching either on Odessa or on Moscow... We are still waiting for help from someone, from a miracle, from nature! Now we go every day to Nikolaevsky Boulevard to see if, God forbid, the French battleship, which for some reason looms in the roadstead and which still seems to be easier, has gone away.”

This is shown very strongly in M. A. Bulgakov’s play “Days of the Turbins,” written based on the novel “The White Guard.” The Turbin brothers and their friends are presented to us as bearers of Russian officer honor, as the type of people from whom we should take an example. But if we look at it in fairness, we see how the “white guard” - officers and cadets, shoot from rifles and machine guns at some “gray people” and serve the Germans and their puppet hetman.

What are they protecting? Here’s what: “And blows from lieutenant stacks in the faces, and shrapnel rapid fire on rebellious villages, backs slashed by the ramrods of Hetman Serdyuks, and receipts on pieces of paper in the handwriting of majors and lieutenants of the German army: “Give the Russian pig 25 marks for the pig bought from her.” . Good-natured, contemptuous laughter at those who came with such a receipt to the German headquarters in the City.”

And the “gray” people who were shot at by white officers, defending the hetman and the Germans and at the same time dreaming of an invasion of Russia by the French and Senegalese, are Russian soldiers and peasants, brought by the former “elite” - the masters - to the Civil War. And these officers are examples of honor and patriotism? Obviously not. Generals Brusilov and Bonch-Bruevich, Colonel Shaposhnikov, non-commissioned officers Rokossovsky and Chapaev are examples to follow and educate the younger generation in the spirit of love for the Motherland.

Thus, the Whites were ready to rely either on the Germans, like Ataman Krasnov, or on the French, British and Americans, like Denikin and Kolchak. And at this time, the Reds were feverishly recreating the Russian (Soviet) statehood and army in order to repel the interventionists and their local slaves.

The “Supreme Ruler” of Russia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, whom representatives of the modern liberal public of Russia so loved (apparently, they saw “one of their own”), was a real “condottiere”, a mercenary of the West, installed by the masters of Great Britain and the USA.

He wrote about the Russian people literally as an extreme Russophobe during perestroika: “a maddened, wild (and devoid of semblance) people, unable to escape the psychology of slaves.” Under Kolchak’s rule in Siberia, such cruelties were committed against these people that peasant uprisings in the rear of the White Army became almost the main factor in the defeat of the Whites. In addition, Kolchak was a prominent February revolutionary, and with his fate the royal throne was destroyed.

In today's Russia they tried to make A.I. Denikin a national hero. They note that he did not help Hitler and wanted the victory of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War. But this is in his declining years. And during the Troubles, Denikin de facto served the masters of the West.

As the remarkable Russian writer and researcher V.V. Kozhinov noted during the Revolution and Civil War in Russia: “Anton Ivanovich Denikin was unconditionally subordinate to the West.” Biographer of A.I. Denikin D. Lekhovich defined the views of the leader of the White movement as the hope that “the Cadet Party will be able to lead Russia to a constitutional monarchy of the British type,” so that “the idea of ​​loyalty to the allies [the Entente] acquired the character of a symbol of faith.”

It is impossible to separate the White movement and foreign intervention, as anti-Soviet researchers and supporters of the Whites often do. They are inextricably linked.

Without the intervention of Western powers and Japan, the Russian Civil War would not have taken on such proportions. The Bolsheviks would have crushed the pockets of resistance of the whites, separatist nationalists, Basmachi and gangs much faster and without such large casualties. Without Western supplies of weapons and materials, the white and national armies would not have been able to expand their activities.

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Why did the white generals lose to the red lieutenants?

The events of the civil war in Russia, what happened in the country in 1917-1922, becomes for new and new generations of Russians almost the same ancient history as, for example, the oprichnina. If some 20 years ago the Civil War was presented in heroic and romantic tones, then in recent years the struggle between the “reds” and “whites” has been presented as a meaningless bloody meat grinder in which everyone lost, but the whites look more “fluffy”. Under the slogan of the final reconciliation of the “reds” and “whites”, the reburial of generals A.I. Denikin, V.O. Kappel and others from foreign cemeteries to domestic graveyards was initiated. Some of today's youth believe that more than eight decades ago the whites defeated the reds. Thus, some American schoolchildren sometimes imagine that the United States defeated Germany and the USSR in World War II.

M. V. Frunze

In this situation, it is worth asking the question posed in the title. Why did units of the Red Army under the leadership of half-educated student Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, Lieutenant Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky, sergeant Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny and others defeat the white armies of Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, generals Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich, Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel, Vladimir Oskarovich Kap Pelya and others ?

Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze by 1917 he was 32 years old (born 1885). He studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, but was unable to complete his studies. In 1904 he joined the RSDLP, became a Bolshevik, and already in 1905 (at the age of 20!) he led the Ivanovo-Voznesensk strike, during which the first Soviets were formed. In 1909-1910 Mikhail Frunze was sentenced to death twice, in 1910-1915. he was in hard labor, from where he escaped.

In 1917, Frunze took part in the revolutionary events in Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Moscow. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was, as they said then, sent to military work. Frunze proved himself to be a major military leader. He commanded the army, then the Southern Group of Forces of the Eastern Front and, at the head of the entire Eastern Front, inflicted a decisive defeat on the armies of A.V. Kolchak. Under the command of Frunze, the troops of the Southern Front broke into the Crimea in the fall of 1920 and defeated the remnants of the Whites under the command of P. N. Wrangel. About 80 thousand soldiers, officers of the “Russian Army” and refugees were evacuated to Turkey. These events marked the official end of the Civil War. Commanded Frunze and the Turkestan Front.

V. K. Blucher

The opponents of the dropout student were professional military men with serious combat experience.

Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak ten years older than Mikhail Frunze. He was born in 1874 in the family of a naval officer, graduated from the Naval Corps in St. Petersburg (1894), and participated in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars. In 1916-1917 Kolchak commanded the Black Sea Fleet and received the rank of admiral (1918).

Kolchak was a direct protege of Great Britain and the USA, where he was after the February Revolution of 1917. He was considered a strong, integral and decisive person. In November 1918 he returned to Russia. He overthrew the Socialist Revolutionary government in Omsk, took the title “Supreme Ruler of the Russian State” and the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief. It was Kolchak who captured almost the entire gold reserve of the Russian Empire, with which he paid for the help of his patrons. With their support, he organized a powerful offensive in March 1919, setting the goal of reaching Moscow and destroying Bolshevik power. Ufa, Sarapul, Izhevsk, Votkinsk were occupied.

M. N. Tukhachevsky

However, the Bolsheviks were able to withstand the blow. The Red troops under the command of Frunze went on the offensive and in April-June 1919 carried out the Buguruslan, Belebey and Ufa operations. By August 1919, the Reds took control of the Urals, the cities of Perm and Yekaterinburg; by the beginning of 1920 - Omsk, Novonikolaevsk and Krasnoyarsk. Soviet power was established throughout Siberia all the way to the Far East. In January 1920, Kolchak was arrested by the Czechs near Irkutsk. Guided by their own interests, they handed Kolchak over to the Socialist Revolutionaries, who considered it best to hand over the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief to the Bolsheviks. The latter conducted a short investigation and shot Kolchak and Pepelyaev.

Another opponent of Mikhail Frunze - Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel - died of natural causes in exile. He, a nobleman and a Baltic baron, was also older than Frunze, born in 1878. Pyotr Nikolaevich graduated from the Mining Institute and the Academy of the General Staff, was a participant in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars, rose to the rank of lieutenant general and received the title of baron. After the October Revolution, P. N. Wrangel left for Crimea.

S. M. Budyonny

In August 1918, he joined Denikin’s Volunteer Army, commanded the cavalry corps, and from January 1919, the Caucasian Volunteer Army. For criticizing A.I. Denikin and attempting to remove him from the post of commander in chief, Wrangel was removed from his post and went abroad, which indicated confusion in the leadership of the White movement. In May 1920, P. N. Wrangel not only returned to Russia, but also replaced A. I. Denikin as commander of the Armed Forces of southern Russia. The harsh repressive regime he established in Crimea in April-November 1920 was called “Wrangelism.” He was able to mobilize up to 80 thousand people into his army. The government of the South of Russia was created. Wrangel's troops, taking advantage of the advance of the White Poles, set out from the Crimea, but they had to again hide behind the fortifications of Perekop, on which they had counted heavily.

The operation to liberate Crimea took Frunze less than a month. Wrangel evacuated to Constantinople in November 1920. He created the Russian All-Military Union in Paris (1924), which numbered up to 100 thousand people. After Wrangel's death, the EMRO was paralyzed by the actions of OGPU-NKVD agents.

Perhaps the most colorful and popular figure of the Civil War - Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny(1883-1973). He was born in the Don region, but his father was not a Cossack with his own land, but a tenant farmer. Semyon grazed calves and pigs in his Bolshaya Orlovka settlement and worked as a farm laborer. In 1903, called up for military service, during the Russian-Japanese War in the Far East, he took part in the fight against the Honghuzes. The strong young guy chose to serve in the army over the fate of a farm laborer; he rode horses, preparing them for service.

During the First World War, in cavalry units he passed the ranks from non-commissioned officer to sergeant (January 1917). In the summer of 1917, S. M. Budyonny became chairman of the regimental soldiers' committee, and on his initiative, at the end of August 1917, part of the troops of General L. G. Kornilov was detained and disarmed.

In the Platovskaya village of the Salsky district, a demobilized cavalryman at the beginning of 1918 organized a village council of peasants and Kalmyks. But the councils were dispersed, and Budyonny began to form red detachments. At the beginning of 1919, he already commanded a cavalry division. During the Civil War, tanks, cars, and airplanes were used, but cavalry remained the main striking force. An important innovation of the Reds was the creation of large cavalry units, called cavalry armies. The creator of the first such army, Mironov, died due to the intrigues of Trotsky. In March 1919, S. M. Budyonny joined the RCP (b), in June he became a corps commander, and in November 1919, the formation he led was called the 1st Cavalry Army.

A. V. Kolchak

Budyonny's red cavalrymen broke enemy lines on the Southern Front in 1919, on the Polish Front in 1920, and in the Crimea. For Budyonny, the Civil War became the peak of his personal career. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and an Order of the Red Banner from the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee. The former sergeant received golden weapons - a saber and a Mauser, both with the Order of the Red Banner.

Later he held command positions in the Red Army, and was deputy and first deputy people's commissar of defense. In 1941-1942. commanded troops on a number of fronts and directions, then the cavalry of the Red Army. He became one of the first Marshals of the Soviet Union. By his 90th birthday, S. M. Budyonny was three times Hero of the Soviet Union.

He lived a long life and Anton Ivanovich Denikin(1872-1947), with whose troops Budyonny’s cavalry fought. The son of an officer who graduated from the General Staff Academy, Anton Ivanovich rose to the rank of lieutenant general.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, he became one of the organizers and then commander of the Volunteer Army (1918). From January 1919 to April 1920 he was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. In June 1919, he led the White campaign against Moscow from the south, when the Donbass, Don region, and part of Ukraine were captured. In September 1919, units of the Volunteer and Don armies captured Kursk, Voronezh, Orel and reached Tula. But on October 7, 1919, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, which lasted until January 1920. The Whites retreated to Crimea. Already in April 1920, A.I. Denikin transferred command to P.N. Wrangel and emigrated. While in exile, he wrote a huge work, “Essays on Russian Troubles.”

Guard second lieutenant of the Russian army was a participant in the First World War Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky. He comes from the nobility, was born in 1893, and in 1914 he graduated from a military school.

8 During the First World War he was awarded several orders, he was captured, from which he escaped several times, including together with the future President of France Charles de Gaulle.

From the beginning of 1918, Tukhachevsky was in the Red Army, working in the Military Department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. As you know, the Bolsheviks initially decided that the Red Army would be formed solely on the basis of the principle of voluntariness. It was assumed that revolution volunteers would receive two recommendations from trustworthy persons. By April 1918, about 40 thousand people had signed up for the Red Army, a quarter of whom were officers of the old Russian army. One of them was M.N. Tukhachevsky. In May 1918, he was the military commissar of defense of the Moscow region, and in June 1918, at the age of 25, he led the 1st Army on the Eastern Front, proving himself to be an outstanding commander in battles against the White Guard and White Czechoslovak troops. In 1919, M. N. Tukhachevsky commanded armies on the Southern and Eastern fronts. For the battles during the defeat of Kolchak's troops, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Honorary Revolutionary Weapon. In February-April 1920 he commanded the Caucasian Front, and from April 1920 to March 1921 - the Western Front.

Tukhachevsky led the troops that suppressed the Kronstadt rebellion in March 1921 and the “Antonovism” in 1921-1922.

On September 4, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee appointed the first commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces of the RSFSR Joakim Joakimovich Vatsetis(1873-1938), not spoiled by the attention of authors and readers. Meanwhile, during the year that I. I. Vatsetis was in this post, 62 corps were created, consolidated into 16 armies, making up 5 fronts. To a much greater extent than Trotsky or Stalin, the creator of the Red Army is I. I. Vatsetis.

Joachim's childhood and youth were difficult. His grandfather was ruined by the Courland baron, and his father worked as a laborer all his life. Joachim himself also had to work as a laborer. An alternative to this fate was military service. The former farm laborer attended the Riga non-commissioned officer training battalion, the Vilna Military School and the Academy of the General Staff in 1891-1909.

In 1909-1915 I. I. Vatsetis rose from captain to colonel.

Nothing connected Vatsetis with the old system, just like the thousands of Latvian riflemen, whose corps he became the head of in December 1917. During the Civil War, the red Latvian riflemen, mostly children of the poor and farm laborers, formed a reliable support for Soviet power, guarded the most important objects, including the Kremlin.

At the age of almost 50 years, I. I. Vatsetis fulfilled his youthful dream - he became a student at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the Law Department of the 1st Moscow State University. Later, like many other prominent Soviet military leaders, he became a victim of Stalin's suspicion.

Why did the red lieutenants win the Civil War against the generals of the old formation? Apparently because at that moment history, the support of most of the people, and other circumstances were on their side. And military leadership talent is an acquired taste. In addition, about 75 thousand people from among the old officers served with the “Reds”. We can say that 100 thousand old officers formed the combat core of the White movement. But this was not enough.

WHITE ARMY DURING THE CIVIL WAR

White Army(Also White Guard) is a common collective name in historical literature for the armed formations of the White movement and anti-Soviet governments during the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922). During the construction of the White Army, the structure of the old Russian army was mainly used, while almost each individual formation had its own characteristics. The military art of the White Army was based on the experience of the First World War, which, however, was strongly influenced by the specifics of the civil war.

ARMED FORMATIONS

In the north

In North-west

On South

In the East

In Central Asia

COMPOUND

The White armies were recruited both on a voluntary basis and on the basis of mobilizations.

On a voluntary basis, they were recruited mainly from officers of the Russian Imperial Army and Navy.

On a mobilization basis, they were recruited from the population of controlled territories and from captured Red Army soldiers.

The number of white armies fighting against the Red Army, according to intelligence estimates, by June 1919 was about 300,000 people.

Management. During the first period of the struggle - representatives of the generals of the Russian Imperial Army:

L. G. Kornilov ,

General Staff General of Infantry M. V. Alekseev ,

Admiral, Supreme Ruler of Russia since 1918 A. V. Kolchak

A. I. Denikin ,*

General of the Cavalry P. N. Krasnov ,

General of the Cavalry A. M. Kaledin ,

Lieutenant General E. K. Miller ,

General of Infantry N. N. Yudenich ,

Lieutenant General V. G. Boldyrev

Lieutenant General M. K. Diterichs

General Staff Lieutenant General I. P. Romanovsky ,

General Staff Lieutenant General S. L. Markov

and others.

In subsequent periods, military leaders who ended the First World War as officers and received general ranks during the Civil War came to the fore:

General Staff Major General M. G. Drozdovsky

General Staff Lieutenant General V. O. Kappel ,

General of the Cavalry A. I. Dutov ,

Lieutenant General Y. A. Slashchev-Krymsky ,

Lieutenant General A. S. Bakich ,

Lieutenant General A. G. Shkuro ,

Lieutenant General G. M. Semenov ,

Lieutenant General Baron R. F. Ungern von Sternberg ,

Major General B.V. Annenkov ,

Major General Prince P. R. Bermondt-Avalov ,

Major General N. V. Skoblin ,

Major General K. V. Sakharov ,

Major General V. M. Molchanov ,

as well as military leaders who, for various reasons, did not join the white forces at the start of their armed struggle:

P. N. Wrangel - future Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in the Crimea General Staff, Lieutenant General Baron,

M. K. Diterichs - Commander of the Zemskaya Ratyu, Lieutenant General.

HISTORY OF CREATION

The first white army was created by the “Alekseevskaya organization” on a voluntary basis from former officers, which was reflected in the name of the army - on December 25, 1917 (01/07/1918) the Volunteer Army was created in Don.

Three months later, in April 1918, the Don Army Defense Council formed the Don Army.

In June 1918, the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, based on the detachment of Lieutenant Colonel V. O. Kappel created the People's Army, and the Provisional Siberian Government at the same time created its own Siberian Army.

On September 23, 1918, the Ufa Directorate united the Volga People's Army and the Siberian Army into one Russian Army (not to be confused with the Russian Army of General Wrangel).

In August 1918, the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region in Arkhangelsk created troops of the Northern Region, sometimes called the Northern Army (not to be confused with the Northern Army of General Rodzianko).

In January 1919, the Don and Volunteer Armies were united into the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR).

In June 1919, the Northern Army was created from Russian officers and soldiers of the Northern Corps, which left the Estonian army. A month later the army was renamed the North-Western.

In April 1920, in Transbaikalia, from the remnants of the army of Admiral Kolchak under the leadership of General G. M. Semenov created the Far Eastern Army.

In May 1920, the Russian Army was formed from the troops of the All-Soviet Union of Socialists who had withdrawn to Krymostatkov.

In 1921, from the remnants of the Far Eastern army of General Semenov in Primorye, the White Rebel Army was formed, later renamed the Zemstvo Army, since in 1922 the Amur Zemstvo government was created in Vladivostok.

From November 1918 to January 1920, the armed forces of the White movement recognized the supreme leadership of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. After the defeat of Admiral Kolchak’s troops in Siberia, on January 4, 1920, supreme power passed to General A. I. Denikin.

THE WHITE MOVEMENT AND THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Back in September 1917, while the future leaders of the White movement were imprisoned in Bykhov, the “Bykhov program”, which was the fruit of the collective labor of “prisoners” and the main theses of which were transferred to the “draft constitution of General Kornilov” - the very first political declaration of the White movement, which was prepared in December 1917 - January 1918 by L. G. Kornilov said: “The resolution of the main state-national and social issues is postponed until the Constituent Assembly...”. In the “constitution...” this idea was detailed: “The government created according to the program of the general. Kornilov, is responsible in her actions only to the Constituent Assembly, to which she will transfer the fullness of state legislative power. The Constituent Assembly, as the sole owner of the Russian Land, must develop the basic laws of the Russian constitution and finally construct the state system.”

Since the main task of the white movement was the fight against Bolshevism, the white leaders did not introduce any other state-building tasks into the agenda until this main task was resolved. Such a non-predecision position was theoretically flawed, but, according to the historian S. Volkov, in conditions when there was no unity on this issue even among the leaders of the white movement, not to mention the fact that in its ranks there were supporters of various forms of the future state structure of Russia, it seemed the only possible one.

HOSTILITIES

A) Fight in the Urals

It acted at the beginning against the Red Guard detachments, from June 1918 - against the 4th and 1st armies of the East, from August 15 - against the Turkestan Red Fronts. In April 1919, during the general offensive of Kolchak’s armies, it broke through the Red front, besieged Uralski, which had been abandoned in January 1919, and reached the approaches to Saratov and Samara. However, limited funds did not allow the Ural region to be captured.

At the beginning of July 1919, the troops of the Turkestan Front launched a counteroffensive against the Ural Army. The well-equipped and armed 25th Infantry Division, transferred from near Ufa, under the command of V. I. Chapaeva, July 5-11, defeated units of the Ural Army, broke the blockade of Uralsk and 07/11/1919. entered the city. The Ural army began to retreat along the entire front.

On July 21, 1919, operational control of the Ural Army was transferred by Admiral A. V. Kolchak to the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR) (Commander-in-Chief General A. I. Denikin). After the transition of the Ural Army to the operational subordination of the command of the AFSR, its composition was divided into 3 areas:

Buzulukskoye, as part of the 1st Ural Cossack Corps (commander, Colonel Izergin M.I.); with its 1st, 2nd and 6th Cossack and 3rd Iletsk, 1st Ural Infantry Divisions and their 13th Orenburg, 13th, 15th and 18th Cossack, 5th Ural infantry, 12th Consolidated Cossack and several other separate regiments (total 6,000 bayonets and sabers);

Saratov, as part of the 2nd Iletsk Cossack Corps (commander, Lieutenant General Akutin V.I.); and his 5th Cossack division with a number of separate regiments (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th Ural Cossacks, 33rd Nikolaevsky Rifle, Guryevsky Foot Regiment, total 8,300 soldiers);

Astrakhan-Gurievskoye, as part of the Ural-Astrakhan Cossack Corps (commander, Major General Tetruev N.G., partisan detachments of Colonels Kartashev and Chizhinsky and the Separate 9th Ural Cossack Regiment (about 1,400 fighters).

At the end of July 1919, the Ural Army retreated to Lbischensk (which it left on August 9, 1919), then further down the Urals. At the end of August and beginning of September, a special detachment of Cossacks from the 1st Division of T. I. Sladkova and peasants Lieutenant Colonel F. F. Poznyakov (1192 soldiers with 9 machine guns and 2 guns) under the overall command of Colonel N. N. Borodin, undertook a successful raid deep into the rear of the Reds, to Lbischensk, where on September 5, 1919. destroyed the entire headquarters of the 25th Infantry Division, which was also the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front, led by St. I. Chapaev, returning Lbischensk to the Ural Army. According to rough estimates, during the Battle of Lbischen the Reds lost at least 2,500 people killed and captured. The total losses of the Whites during this operation amounted to 118 people - 24 killed (including Major General (posthumously) Borodin N.N.) and 94 wounded. The trophies taken in Lbischensk turned out to be very large. About 700 people were captured, a lot of ammunition, food, equipment, a radio station, machine guns, cinematographic devices, several airplanes, cars, etc. were captured.

During the raid, important results were achieved: the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front was destroyed, as a result of which the front troops lost control, decomposed and were demoralized. Units of the Turkestan Front hastily retreated to the positions they occupied in July, in the Uralsk region, and virtually ceased active hostilities. In October 1919, the Cossacks again surrounded and besieged the city.

But after the collapse of Kolchak’s Eastern Front in October-November 1919, the Ural Army found itself blocked by superior Red forces, thereby depriving itself of all sources of replenishment of weapons and ammunition. The defeat of the Urals by the Bolsheviks was only a matter of time.

On November 2, the Turkestan Front, consisting of the 1st and 4th armies (18.5 thousand bayonets, 3.5 thousand sabers, 86 guns and 365 machine guns) launched a general offensive against the Ural Army (5.2 thousand bayonets, 12 thousand sabers , 65 guns, 249 machine guns), planning to encircle and destroy the main forces of the Urals with concentrated attacks on Lbischensk from the north and east. Under pressure from the superior forces of the Reds, the Ural Army began to retreat. On November 20, the Reds captured Lbischensk, however, they were unable to encircle the main forces of the Urals. The front has stabilized south of Lbischensk. The Turkestan Front increased its reserves and was replenished with weapons and ammunition. The Ural Army had neither reserves nor ammunition. On December 10, 1919, the Reds resumed their offensive. The resistance of the weakened Ural units was broken, the front collapsed. On December 11th Art. fell. Slamikhinskaya, on December 18, the Reds captured the city of Kalmykov, thereby cutting off the retreat routes of the Iletsk Corps, and on December 22 - the village of Gorsky, one of the last strongholds of the Urals before Guryev.

The army commander, General Tolstov V.S. and his headquarters retreated to the city of Guryev. The remnants of the Iletsk Corps, having suffered heavy losses in the battles during the retreat and from typhus and relapsing fever that decimated the ranks of the personnel, on January 4, 1920, were almost completely destroyed and captured by the Red troops near the village of Maly Baybuz. At the same time, the Kyrgyz regiment of this corps, almost in its entirety, went over to the side of the Alashordy people, who at that time acted as allies of the Bolsheviks, having previously “cut out” the headquarters of the Iletsk corps, the 4th and 5th Iletsk divisions, and “surrendered” the commander to the Reds corps of Lieutenant General Akutin V.I., who was shot by the troops of the 25th (“Chapaevskaya”) division (according to other sources, he was arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was later shot). The 6th Iletsk Division, retreating to the Volga through the steppe of the Bukeev Horde, almost completely died from disease, hunger and mainly from the fire of the red units pursuing it.

On January 5, 1920, the city of Guryev fell. Some of the Ural Army personnel and civilians were captured, and some of the Cossacks went over to the Red side. The remnants of the units of the Ural Army, led by the army commander, General V.S. Tolstov, with convoys and the civilian population (families and refugees), with a total number of approximately 15,000 people, decided to go south, hoping to unite with the Turkestan army of General Kazanovich B.I. (VSYUR troops of General Denikin). The transition took place in the most difficult conditions of a harsh winter, in January-March 1920, in the absence of a sufficient amount of drinking water, a catastrophic shortage of food and medicine. The transition was carried out along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea to Fort Alexandrovsky. After arriving at the fort, it was planned that civilians, wounded and sick, would be evacuated on the ships of the Caspian flotilla of the AFSR to the other side of the sea in Port Petrovsk. By the time they arrived at Fort Alexandrovsky, less than 3 thousand Cossacks remained from the army, most of whom were sick (mainly various forms of typhus) or frostbite. The military meaning of the campaign was lost, since by this time Denikin’s troops in the Caucasus were retreating and the port of Petrovsk was abandoned in these days (the last days of March 1920). On April 4, 1920, from the port of Petrovsk, which became the main base of the red Volga-Caspian flotilla, the destroyer Karl Liebknecht (until February 1919 had the name Finn) and the fighter boat Zorkiy approached the fort. The detachment was commanded by the commander of the flotilla, F. F. Raskolnikov. Later he would write in a report:

A detachment of 214 people (several generals, officers, Cossacks, civilians (family members), led by Ataman V.S. Tolstov left for Persia on April 4, 1920, and the Ural Army ceased to exist. The campaign from Fort Alexandrovsky to Persia was detailed described in the book by V. S. Tolstov “From the Red Paws to the Unknown Distance” (Campaign of the Uralians), first published in 1921 in Constantinople, the book was currently republished in 2007 in Uralsk, in the “Ural Library” series by the publishing house Optima LLP.

B) Turkestan military organization

TVO was preparing an uprising against Soviet power in Turkestan. Active assistance to the organization was provided by agents of foreign intelligence services, primarily English ones from the border area, and agents operating under the cover of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in Tashkent under the government of the Turkestan Republic. Initially, the action against Soviet power in the region was planned for August 1918, but for a number of reasons the date of this action later had to be moved to the spring of 1919.

The Turkestan military organization included many officers, led by Colonel P. G. Kornilov (brother of the famous leader of the white movement L. G. Kornilov), Colonel I. M. Zaitsev, Lieutenant General L. L. Kondratovich, former assistant to the Governor General of Turkestan, General E. P. Dzhunkovsky Colonel Blavatsky. Later, the Commissar for Military Affairs of the Turkestan Republic also joined the ranks of TVO. P. Osipov, in whose circle such officers as Colonel Rudnev, Osipov’s orderly Bott, Gaginsky, Savin, Butenin, Stremkovsky and others played a prominent role.

All the anti-Bolshevik forces of the region ultimately rallied around TVO - Cadets, Mensheviks, right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries and bourgeois nationalists, Basmachi, and Muslim clergy, former officials of the tsarist administration, Dashnaks, Bundists. The TVO headquarters established contact with Ataman Dutov, General Denikin, Kazakh nationalists-Alashorda, the Emir of Bukhara, the leaders of the Fergana and Turkmen Basmachi, the Trans-Caspian White Guards, and the British consuls in Kashgar, Ghulja, and Mashhad. The leaders of the organization signed an agreement under which they pledged to transfer Turkestan to the English protectorate for a period of 55 years. In turn, the representative of the British intelligence services in Central Asia, Malleson, promised the TVO representatives assistance in the amount of 100 million rubles, 16 mountain guns, 40 machine guns, 25 thousand rifles and a corresponding amount of ammunition. Thus, representatives of the British intelligence services not only helped the conspirators, they determined the goals and objectives of the organization and controlled its actions.

However, in October 1918, the special services of the Turkestan Republic - the TurkChK, together with the criminal investigation department of Tashkent - got on the trail of TVO, after which a number of arrests were made among the leaders of the organization. The remaining leaders of the underground left the city, but some branches of the organization survived and continued to operate. General Malesson's representative in Tashkent, Bailey, went underground. It was TVO that played an important role in initiating the uprising under the leadership of Konstantin Osipov in January 1919. At the last stage of its existence, the ranks of TVO actually included representatives of the new Soviet nomenklatura - the Bolshevik-Leninist Agapov and the technician Popov.

After the defeat of the uprising, the officers who left Tashkent formed the Tashkent officer partisan detachment (101 people), which from March fought together with other anti-Bolshevik formations against the red units in the Fergana Valley, and then near Bukhara. Then the remnants of the Tashkent officer partisan detachment united with units of the Turkestan army.

IN) Fight in the North-West

General Nikolai Yudenich created the North-Western Army on the territory of Estonia to fight Soviet power. The army numbered from 5.5 to 20 thousand soldiers and officers.

On August 11, 1919, the Government of the North-West Region was created in Tallinn (Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance - Stepan Lianozov, Minister of War - Nikolai Yudenich, Minister of Marine - Vladimir Pilkini, etc.). On the same day, the Government of the North-Western Region, under pressure from the British, who promised weapons and equipment for the army for this recognition, recognized the state independence of Estonia. However, Kolchak's all-Russian government did not approve this decision.

After the recognition of Estonia's independence by the Government of the Russian North-Western Region, Great Britain provided him with financial assistance, and also made minor supplies of weapons and ammunition.

N. N. Yudenich tried to take Petrograd twice (in spring and autumn), but each time was unsuccessful.

The spring offensive (5.5 thousand bayonets and sabers for the Whites against 20 thousand for the Reds) of the Northern Corps (from July 1, the North-Western Army) on Petrograd began on May 13, 1919. The Whites broke through the front near Narva and, by moving around Yamburg, forced the Reds to retreat. On May 15, they captured Gdov. On May 17, Yamburg fell, and on May 25, Pskov. By the beginning of June, the Whites reached the approaches to Luga and Gatchina, threatening Petrograd. But the Reds transferred reserves to Petrograd, increasing the size of their group operating against the North-Western Army to 40 thousand bayonets and sabers, and in mid-July they launched a counteroffensive. During heavy fighting, they pushed back the small units of the North-Western Army beyond the Luga River, and on August 28 captured Pskov.

Autumn offensive on Petrograd. On October 12, 1919, the North-Western Army (20 thousand bayonets and sabers versus 40 thousand for the Reds) broke through the Soviet front at Yamburgai and on October 20, 1919, having taken Tsarskoe Selo, it reached the outskirts of Petrograd. The Whites captured the Pulkovo Heights and, on the far left flank, broke into the outskirts of Ligovo, and scout patrols began fighting at the Izhora plant. But, having no reserves and not receiving support from Finland and Estonia, after ten days of fierce and unequal battles near Petrograd with the Red troops (whose numbers had grown to 60 thousand people), the North-Western Army was unable to capture the city. Finland and Estonia refused assistance because the leadership This white army never recognized the independence of these countries. On November 1, the retreat of the Northwestern White Army began.

By mid-November 1919, Yudenich's army retreated into Estonia through stubborn battles. After the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty between the RSFSR and Estonia, 15 thousand soldiers and officers of Yudenich's North-Western Army, under the terms of this treaty, were first disarmed, and then 5 thousand of them were captured by the Estonian authorities and sent to concentration camps.

Despite the exodus of the White armies from their native land as a result of the Civil War, from a historical perspective the White movement was by no means defeated: once in exile, it continued to fight against the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia and beyond.

"WHITE EMIGRATION"

White emigration, which became widespread in 1919, was formed in several stages. The first stage is associated with the evacuation of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin from Novorossiysk in February 1920. The second stage - with the departure of the Russian Army, Lieutenant General Baron P. N. Wrangel from Crimea in November 1920, the third - with the defeat of the troops of Admiral A. V. Kolchakai on the evacuation of the Japanese army from Primorye in the 1920-1921s. After the evacuation of Crimea, the remnants of the Russian Army were stationed in Turkey, where General P. N. Wrangel, his headquarters and senior commanders had the opportunity to restore it as a fighting force. The key task of the command was, firstly, to obtain from the Entente allies material assistance in the required amount, secondly, to fend off all their attempts to disarm and disband the army and, thirdly, disorganized and demoralized by defeats and evacuation of the units as soon as possible to reorganize and put things in order, restoring discipline and morale.

The legal position of the Russian Army and military alliances was complex: the legislation of France, Poland and a number of other countries in whose territory they were located did not allow the existence of any foreign organizations “looking like formations organized on a military model.” The Entente powers sought to turn the Russian army, which had retreated but retained its fighting spirit and organization, into a community of emigrants. “Even more than physical deprivation, complete political lack of rights weighed on us. No one was guaranteed against the arbitrariness of any agent of power of each of the Entente powers. Even the Turks, who themselves were under the regime of arbitrariness of the occupation authorities, were guided in relation to us by the rule of the strong,” wrote N.V. Savich, Wrangel’s employee responsible for finance. That is why Wrangel decides to transfer his troops to the Slavic countries.

In the spring of 1921, Baron P. N. Wrangel approached the Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments with a request for the possibility of resettling Russian Army personnel in Yugoslavia. The units were promised maintenance at the expense of the treasury, which included rations and a small salary. September 1, 1924 P. N. Wrangel issued an order on the formation of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). It included all units, as well as military societies and unions that accepted the order for execution. The internal structure of individual military units was kept intact. The EMRO itself acted as a unifying and governing organization. Its head became the Commander-in-Chief, the general management of the affairs of the EMRO was concentrated at Wrangel's headquarters. From this moment on, we can talk about the transformation of the Russian Army into an emigrant military organization. The Russian General Military Union became the legal successor of the White Army. This can be discussed by referring to the opinion of its creators: “The formation of the EMRO prepares the opportunity, in case of need, under the pressure of the general political situation, for the Russian Army to adopt a new form of existence in the form of military alliances.” This “form of being” made it possible to fulfill the main task of the military command in exile - maintaining existing and training new army personnel.

An integral part of the confrontation between the military-political emigration and the Bolshevik regime on the territory of Russia was the struggle of the special services: reconnaissance and sabotage groups of the EMRO with the organs of the OGPU - NKVD, which took place in various regions of the planet.

White emigration in the political spectrum of Russian diaspora

The political moods and preferences of the initial period of Russian emigration represented a fairly wide range of trends, almost completely reproducing the picture of the political life of pre-October Russia. In the first half of 1921, a characteristic feature was the strengthening of monarchical tendencies, explained, first of all, by the desire of ordinary refugees to rally around a “leader” who could protect their interests in exile, and in the future ensure their return to their homeland. Such hopes were associated with the personality of P. N. Wrangel and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, to whom General Wrangel reassigned the ROVS as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

White emigration lived in hope of returning to Russia and liberating it from the totalitarian regime of communism. However, the emigration was not united: from the very beginning of the existence of the Russian Abroad, there was a fierce struggle between supporters of reconciliation with the regime established in sub-Soviet Russia (“Smenovekhovtsy”) and supporters of an irreconcilable position in relation to communist power and its legacy. White emigration, led by the EMRO and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, formed the camp of irreconcilable opponents of the “anti-national regime in Russia.” In the thirties, part of the emigrant youth, children of white fighters, decided to go on the offensive against the Bolsheviks. This was the national youth of the Russian emigration, first calling itself the “National Union of Russian Youth”, later renamed the “National Labor Union of the New Generation” (NTSNP). The goal was simple: to contrast Marxism-Leninism with another idea based on solidarity and patriotism. At the same time, the NTSNP never associated itself with the White movement, criticized the Whites, considering itself a political party of a fundamentally new type. This ultimately led to an ideological and organizational break between the NTSNP and the ROWS, which continued to remain in the previous positions of the White movement and was critical of the “national boys” (as NTSNP members began to be called in emigration).